Headphone Bass – What you need to know

No matter how confident I am about the headphones that I recommend, one of the things I hear a lot from people is that they aren’t getting enough bass. So there’s one really common problem that actually accounts for this and it all has to do with how your headphones fit. So when music is coming out of the drivers, those are the little speakers inside your ear, it’s the bass frequencies that are the ones that are most likely to escape. If you have a fit where there’s a little bit of a gap or anything, immediately gonna go out of your ear and you’re not gonna hear it. The other issue is especially with little tiny earbuds, is that if the driver is pointed the wrong way, it actually can cause the frequencies to bounce around inside of your ear and make them sound kinda weird. And of course, if the headphones don’t fit correctly, they also can chafe or pinch or fall off. It’s worth your time to make sure that your headphones fit you perfectly.

Let’s look at what kind of headphones we have. If you have headphones like this, like AirPods, or something like this that’s designed for running, they’re considered unsealed. So with these types of headphones you’re not gonna have a complete seal around the outside of your ear canal and the earbuds themselves. And the tuning on these are designed to basically compensate for those frequencies escaping. That’s also the same thing with those Audiophile open back headphones. But there really isn’t a whole lot you can do about it. Essentially if the bass escapes, that’s it. But it’s still worth checking the fit on those because you wanna make sure that they’re comfortable and that they’ll stay in your ears and won’t fall out. (upbeat music) So if you’re trying to get your over-ears to fit you, you can try adjusting the headband or tilting it slightly up or down. In the case of ones that are really big like these guys sometimes it may mean that you don’t have the headband exactly straight up and down. You can tighten it and tilt it slightly to get it to settle. And if it won’t do it comfortably you gotta find some other headphones that actually fit your head that are smaller. (upbeat music) If you wear glasses, this is one of the biggest things I hear from people, is when they’re wearing over-ear headphones their glasses get in the way. When you have glasses on the biggest thing you have to worry about are the arms. So you’re gonna wanna look for something like this that has an on-ear design, so that it doesn’t interfere at all the band of the glasses. Or you can look for something that has a squishy memory foam like this, so that when it goes around it actually can seal completely around the arm and the sound doesn’t escape. What you wanna make sure you look for though is you don’t have too big of a gap. So for something like this it’s sort of soft, but you can that there’s already a little bit of a hole right here and you’re gonna start to lose not only the isolation but the bass. (upbeat music) In-ear headphones. They’re a whole other animal. Because you need to make sure that when you have your ear canal that the sound doesn’t escape. So with something like this the ideal is to have absolutely every surface on the inside of your ear canal being touched by the tip of your earbud. If you get something that’s too small it actually can create gaps like this and they can fall out. Or if you have something that’s too big and you try to jam it in there you can end up with little gaps because it won’t, it’ll end up with like a folded thing here. And you’ll end up having sound come out that way. If you are someone who for whatever reason just says look I can never manage to get in-ears to work for me. You might wanna look for something called a comply tip or a foam tip. Essentially it’s like a memory foam and you put them in. As it gradually expands, covers the entire surface like that. You can actually look and try to find some that would be compatible with your, your type of headphone. (upbeat music) So with workout headphones you need a little bit more to kind of hold it in there. So you’re gonna wanna look for things that have wings.

Something like this, or you’re gonna want something that has a hook. You need to make sure that you keep in mind that the inner ear and the outer ear aren’t always correlated so just ’cause you have a small tip doesn’t mean that you need a small wing. You may need a large wing and a small tip. You may need a small wing and a large tip. Don’t be afraid to experiment, try different combinations, and even different tips and wing sizes on different ears. When it has a hook like this you wanna make sure that it actually can sit behind your ear and look for some that have a little bit of flex to it. Try to bend it so that it sits behind your ear a little bit better and holds it on, ’cause if it just hovers above your ear it’s not really doing anything. (upbeat music) But no matter what headphones you’re working with the best thing to do is just keep adjusting and try to figure out what works for you. One last trick that you can try, I like to call it the fingertip test. Rub your fingertips together outside of your ear after you’ve put your headphones on, and see if you can hear that little sound of your fingers rubbing together. If you can you probably don’t have a great seal. And you know what, if you’ve tried everything and you still can’t find the sweet spot, don’t be afraid to exchange it. It just might not be right for your head. Just ’cause it fits a bunch of other people, it might not fit you. Jump around, shake your head, especially if you’re doing workout headphones. And if they’re not comfortable about 15 minutes they’re gonna be really uncomfortable after about an hour.